I don’t know what it costs to get a small batch of limited production aluminum rigid forks made. But a couple of thoughts.
1) RSD is a small brand with nowhere near QBP/Surly’s purchasing power or financial clout.
2) There are zero other similar products in the market so there’s no standard bike industry R&D here.
3) Looking at the prices of RSD’s other products (frames and completes) everything else looks comparatively reasonable, so I think it it would be fairest to assume if there were competing products they’d be similarly priced.
4) Available right now and cheaper than custom.
5) It’s actually the only off the shelf option available that would work with a lot of hardtails.
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Re. Tire/Rim. It gets very, very pressure sensitive and I think you’d have a better experience with an i40 but I did play with this for science in 2017 to see if Mavic’s claims that 3”/i28 worked would pass the trail test and it was okay.
**[Article here](https://nsmb.com/articles/do-plus-tires-need-plus-rims/)** if you’re interested.
April 27, 2023, 6:40 a.m. - Andrew Major
I don’t know what it costs to get a small batch of limited production aluminum rigid forks made. But a couple of thoughts. 1) RSD is a small brand with nowhere near QBP/Surly’s purchasing power or financial clout. 2) There are zero other similar products in the market so there’s no standard bike industry R&D here. 3) Looking at the prices of RSD’s other products (frames and completes) everything else looks comparatively reasonable, so I think it it would be fairest to assume if there were competing products they’d be similarly priced. 4) Available right now and cheaper than custom. 5) It’s actually the only off the shelf option available that would work with a lot of hardtails. ——— Re. Tire/Rim. It gets very, very pressure sensitive and I think you’d have a better experience with an i40 but I did play with this for science in 2017 to see if Mavic’s claims that 3”/i28 worked would pass the trail test and it was okay. **[Article here](https://nsmb.com/articles/do-plus-tires-need-plus-rims/)** if you’re interested.